The Zen Gun [Mass Market Paperback]

Barrington J. Bayley (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: DAW (August 2, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879978511
• ISBN-13: 978-0879978518
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,264,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zen master Barrington Bayley, June 8, 2000

By 

"[e-mail]" (South Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zen Gun (Mass Market Paperback)

An entertaining and absorbing romp through space aboard a battle class pleasure ship in search of the ultimate weapon. While developing a new space drive, humans have accidentally torn a hole in space, annoying nearby aliens, and inadvertently releasing strange creatures who mold matter indisciminately. As a human-primate chimera and his samurai escort quest for the power of the zen gun, intelligent animals threaten to take control of the empire. Even though the moon is falling from the sky, and the robots are on strike, there is always time for a brief physics lesson or two. Barrington J. Bayley is not only a great storyteller, he is also a master of the English language.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant but eclectic, February 26, 2009

By 

Symmetry Breaker - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zen Gun (Mass Market Paperback)

Perhaps not for everyone, but I found this book to be fresh, complex, humorous, and fast-paced. And hidden in with the pure zaniness is some depth, like how old and powerful empires decay, and the dynamics of conflict when one side has polished and perfected tactics, and the other fresh energy but is in a desperate race to learn the rules before being crushed.... It's all thrown together into a giant pile but for me it works.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, bizarre and bogus, August 19, 2007

By 

Mikko Saari (Tampere, Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zen Gun (Mass Market Paperback)

There's good science fiction and then there's bad science fiction. Unfortunately The Zen Gun belongs in the latter category. The story is a mixture of all sorts of ideas: genetic engineering, an intergalactic empire in decline, talking animals, a strange zen gun with an ominous purpose...

There's plenty of imaginative space opera action and it all moves pretty swiftly, but at the same time the whole story is confusing and bounces from place to place. Parts of The Zen Gun are pertty good, but the most of it doesn't really work that well.

Add to that some very bizarre and boring pseudoscientific lectures on the nature of the universe and you'll end up with a fairly pointless book. I recommend skipping this one; if you decide to read it, fortunately it's very short. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)